When I went to Taiwan, no visa was required-- I just flew into Taipei. But I believe it was a 30-day tourist visa. If you have guaranteed booty, fine, but I was bored to tears in Taipei-- cold and rainy and expensive-- and it was just a stopover to get to the Philippines, anyway. The Philippines are great-- friendly people, beautiful women.. no comparison.

There's so many great countries to see that are far cheaper than Japan or Taiwan. If you want to bum around, fly to Thailand, and then meet some guys in the hostels and wander around Vietnam or Burma or Cambodia or Malaysia or Singapore. You could possibly do this for a year on $5000.